The nets best thing

It kills one million people every year. 
Over 200 million will get it this year.
90% of these people live in sub saharan Africa. 
Every year it costs Africa $12 billion in lost productivity. 


What is it? Malaria.  (stats from Nets for Life) 


According to the World Health Organization malaria can be described as being caused by  - "... a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells.  Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs"


I have travelled to many areas of the world where malaria is prevalent, I follow the usual regimen of anti-malarial drugs such as doxycyclene, apply DEET(mind you this does little and I still get slaughtered by mosquitoes) and sleep under a net.  Which is great, for ME. What are the options for the locals?  


For many, in fact for 95% of children in Sub Saharan Africa, there is only one option - do nothing and hope you can build some immunity through exposure. However, some are not so lucky for some they contract the deadly cerebral Malaria and they die, or they are old or very young and they can not win the battle with the parasite dying.  I say they have no option as some have not got the money for a net or for drugs or they just think that malaria is a way of life and that is just how it is.  There is hardly a person I have met in Malawi, Uganda or Ghana who has not been directly infected with Malaria and there is just as few who have not mourned for a loved one who has died from it.  Malaria, is common, it kills often and almost everyone has it.  

I asked Pastor James, our Uganda Country Director, how many times has he  had Malaria - "Oh many times, I loose count". I know he has it a few more times since I asked him two years ago.  Chimwemwe, in Malawi who is maybe 13 years old, "I have had Malaria 12 times..." One of the most affecting things I ever saw was a women I met in Ghana who lay on her concrete floor dying from Malaria. The drugs, cost $10 and she was dying because she did not have $10.  They say Malaria has killed more people that all the wars combined, I would believe that.  

This morning I received pictures of a mosquito net distribution in the Malawian village of Chilombo (or if you like Chirombo).  Great pictures of our staff educating the people on Malaria, the causes, the purposes of the nets and ensuring the local leaderships re-enforces all that they say.  Pictures of children holding a net, which costs $8 in Malawi - which is less than the drugs.  According to Nets for Life - "When insecticide-treated nets are used properly by three-quarters of the people in a community, malaria transmission is cut by 50%, child deaths are cut by 20%, and the mosquito population drops by as much as 90% 

Education and awareness are key to net distribution also

This was a distribution of 400 nets, which means all of the families who have children in this Village Partnership Program will have mosquito nets but we still have many more families and children in Malawi, Uganda and Sierra Leone who need bed nets to protect themselves from Malaria...


Please join us in getting even more nets for our communities, the impact of Malaria is profound but so is the impact of net...buy a net here.